Scenario

Below is a hypothetical situation illustrating how the RTI process works in the schools.

Identification 

Students are administered DIBELS assessments 3 times a year.  In the Beginning of the Year (BOY), you (the teacher) see that 5 of your students are in the red, indicating they are far behind grade-level standards in Nonsense Word Fluency and Letter Sound Identification. There are also 4 students in the yellow range, indicating they are at-risk.  At this point, you would:

• Closely monitor the progress of the 4 students in the yellow range, to see if they improve by the Middle of Year (MOY) assessment
• Recommend the 5 students in the red for an intervention, targeting letter sounds and sound blending

Intervention 
At this point, the interventionist is likely to implement an intervention targeting letter sounds and sound-blending.  I like using the Word Building intervention that can be found in Rathvon, 2008 (mentioned in previous posts).  The purpose of this intervention is to build decoding skills with an activity that transforms one word into another by changing a grapheme at the beginning, middle, or end of the word. This intervention should be done 2-3 times a week for 30 minutes.

Progress Monitoring 
At the end of each intervention session, the student will be given a "post-test" of the words they have used that lesson, and can chart their own progress.  This is the form of progress-monitoring the interventionist will have available at the end of each session.  After 2 weeks (4-6 intervention sessions), the interventionist will have some data from the progress monitoring chart to see if the student is improving on their letter sound identification and sound blending abilities.  If improvement is evidenced, the intervention will continue.  If there doesn't seem to be much progress made, the interventionist will try a different intervention or approach.

Communication

...With Parents 

1.  Encourage Parental Involvement 

Parents may not always be aware of the RTI process of identification and subsequent interventions.  Research has shown that students whose parents were involved in the RTI process made significantly greater progress in their intervention goals than children whose parents didn't participate (Evangelou & Sylvia, 2003).  It is important to establish a good relationship with parents so they are more willing to participate in the process and work with their children at home on the skills they are learning in school.

It is also important to know the parents' specific concerns about their child, and address those concerns first.  This will also continue to strengthen the collaborative relationship between you and the parents, and encourage parents to continue staying involved.

2.  Explain Educational Language 

Parents may not be familiar with the educational terminology that teachers use, especially intervention terms such as "curriculum-based assessment" "progress monitoring" "benchmark" etc.  This table has some terms and definitions that may be helpful to explain to parents.

3.  Keep in Regular Contact with Parents 

This can be done in a number of ways, depending on your preferences.  Some teachers prefer to email parents on a daily or weekly basis.  Other strategies involve having a "daily diary" where you update parents on the student's daily progress.

This is also a helpful checklist teachers can use and provide for parents to keep track of parent-teacher meetings about the intervention process.

The RTI Network also provides further information on engaging parents in the RTI process.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities provides parent resources and information for parents about the RTI process as well.



...With Teachers

If students in your class see other teachers throughout the day, and they probably will, it is important to communicate the student's difficulty or progress as it applies to the class.  In a setting where the student has different teachers for different subjects (i.e. in middle/high school), it is helpful to share information about progress and interventions so all teachers are aware and can do their best to help the student succeed in their classroom.